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Weilan week, why not
Nov. 25th, 2019 09:44 amSo, day one was too simple. How did I get into Guardian? It's all Rana's fault!
Day two, though, actually made me think.
Anyone who's seen me fan, or glanced passingly at my fic, knows I have a favorite character type. I love me some Magnificent Bastards, especially if they're just broken enough to make the magnificence real. And really, the thing about Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan is that they kind of split that type between them.
Shen Wei has the power and the iron determination, but he's not really the strategic type, not down at the bone. His sense of integrity is just as iron as his determination, and he doesn't flex much that way. With the Regent, with Zhao Xinci, hell even with the university Chancellor, he withdraws rather than fight back on their ground. Zhao Yunlan, though, he can manipulate with the best of them, and he consistently does. He's slippery in exactly the way that appeals to me, but the narrative very carefully removes any possibility of power, from the supernatural to the political. So it's only together, when they deploy those traits in cooperation and each on behalf of the other, that they really hit my character kinks with a hammer.
Plus, you know, the pretty.
Day two, though, actually made me think.
Anyone who's seen me fan, or glanced passingly at my fic, knows I have a favorite character type. I love me some Magnificent Bastards, especially if they're just broken enough to make the magnificence real. And really, the thing about Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan is that they kind of split that type between them.
Shen Wei has the power and the iron determination, but he's not really the strategic type, not down at the bone. His sense of integrity is just as iron as his determination, and he doesn't flex much that way. With the Regent, with Zhao Xinci, hell even with the university Chancellor, he withdraws rather than fight back on their ground. Zhao Yunlan, though, he can manipulate with the best of them, and he consistently does. He's slippery in exactly the way that appeals to me, but the narrative very carefully removes any possibility of power, from the supernatural to the political. So it's only together, when they deploy those traits in cooperation and each on behalf of the other, that they really hit my character kinks with a hammer.
Plus, you know, the pretty.
